Ben Plotnicki

(Outdoor tester, weather permitting)

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For time

Road bike 10 miles

Outdoor run 3 miles

57:49

Ummm, is this my punishment for hurting my shoulder? If so it’s time to bomb proof that thing, or get a bionic arm and shoulder……

I actually loved the challenge of this, it was tough, but also having to do it on an AB created some different things. I know having the metrics in front of me played a role and gave me feedback. I kept the pace above 262 99.9% of the time, there was an occasional dip, and then I would play little games and give a quick burst every so often. Bike took 26:59 and last 1000m I was pushing to hold around 345 watts. I did have to get some water and one other management item and them off to the run, so had to manage a little transition. 

Run was another story/hurdle – 30:20. Hamstring held up great so was happy with that. The start was slow, as I spent a good minute or so walking up the first steep hill. The only negatives on my fun is I had to manage a bunch of terrain and steep inclines. I tried not to walk them but twice I did choose to power walk them as the incline was breaking me down. 

Overall, I wished I could’ve pushed the run a little harder, but I felt the heat was creating a mental limiter more than anything. My heart rate felt good, but just managing the sun and the elements made me uncomfortable.

90 sec progressive intensity row, start at 1:50 and end around 1:35, directly into

10 1-arm KB front rack squats @ 53lbs (5/side)

10 1-arm KB russian swings @ 53lbs (5/side)

10 lateral box jump overs @ 20in

rest walk 2 min x 3 sets

I highly underestimated the potency of this. I was way more sneaky than I anticipated. Was unable to do a left hand kb rack squat, but was fine holding the bell in the palm of my left hand with a slight insurance assistance from the right hand was fine. First round the swinging of my arms irritated the shoulder but that loosened up and went away. 

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90 sec progressive intensity bike, start at 300 watts and end around 450 watts, directly into

50 Du’s

15 wallballs

15 toes to bar (adust to GHD if needed for shoulder)

rest walk 2 min x 3 sets

Of all the things we did today, the double under gave me the most discomfort. WB @ 20 were fine, I assume the impact of the 30 might have been a little stressful. TTB were fine

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Ski erg 50 cals @ 85% effort, new set every 5 min x 4

3:05 – 3:15-3:11-3:02

In the 2nd round my low back, tri’s and lats blew up and I was not comfortable at all and just wanted to survive. From there on I just decided to suck it up and get the shit done.

Overall today, was just happy to train and glad I could move and wasn’t in much pain at all. It just felt good to get after it. But man it felt like it just kicked my ass today. 

Did some movement exploration and db snatch was fine, 1-arm db c&j was fine on the left side up until the 50’s and that load was doable but a little unstable and higher volume there would probably pose some problems. Burpee were fine, didn’t try to do any fast but just wanted to see how it felt. 

Tomorrow I’m supposed to have a 10 mile road bike…..I have no access to a road bike, what are my options?

Banded hamstring pulldown progression (do 3 sets of 10-12/leg, find an appropriately challenging variation from this series for this week – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWs9Kyg6nFM)

Did more than just one, did a couple extra exercises here

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Single leg bridge from low box x 5/side, 2-3 sec hold at top of each rep, slight knee bend throughout, 3 sets, rest as needed – https://www.dropbox.com/s/r7mes5cqzq3ck2g/MVI_5608.MOV?dl=0 

do these as just isometric holds or negatives only if needed

Got in reps here and it felt fine

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90 degree trunk twists from GHD sorenson hold with hands behind head x 3-5/side x 3 sets, rest as needed

done

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Dynamic hip opening warmup (40-50ft/movement x 2x through) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIiWBJh03ow

done

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4 sets for times

AB 2 min @ 300 watts, steady, into

Run 400m (replace with 500m row if needed for hamstring)

16 burpees to 6in touch

24 russian swings @ 70lbs

rest walk 4 min bt sets

3:40

3:50

4:12

4:18

I did not try and push the run at all today, more of an internal fear. At this volume I didn’t expect it to be an issue. Last week on the running was good through 2000m, so felt we should be ok through 1600, was just glad there was no residual discomfort left over. Also done on TrueForm. First two rounds were run at around 8 min mile. The third round the fall off was on the run. I’m not ready to give this one to a lack of fuel substrate, just feel the fatigue kicked in from my long morning on Wed and less about fueling. Not to mention it was freaking hot. Worked on pushing hard in the burpee, trying to maintain a 4 second cadence, a big chunk in the middle I would try and push to a 3 second cadence and finish back maintaining that 4 second. I did well with this plan all except for the last round, 

Shoulder update: post session through out the night shoulder felt great and no issues. And this morning, end range external rotation feels more uncomfortable and limited, where yesterday before training, that end range was somewhat painful. These are all good signs as good blood flow, down regulation, and manual therapy will get back to feeling normal.

A – 20 power snatch AFAP in sets of 5 unbroken @ 115lbs

1:19

(leg drive felt like it became the major limiting factor here)

B – Squat clean and jerk; 6 singles @ 215-230, minimal rest bt reps to keep quality high

1:40

C – Front squat – AMRAP 2 min @ 225lbs, take bar from floor

17 (definitely tried pushing to failure here.)

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3 rounds, each for time:

10 DB step overs 50lbs

80 speed steps (only counting right foot)

rest 1:1 bw rounds 

2:47

2:38

2:41 – shoelace came untied and tried to power through

Felt a little more athletic today but not a whole lot better. The step overs burned up my traps and shoulders that I was having to fight for good position on the speed steps.

1. DB walking lunge practice for speed 50lbs; 50 feet x4; rest 1 min

– Set 1: single arm OH

– Set 2: Two arm front rack

– Set 3: Two arm farmers hold

– Set 4: Two arm OH

22-24-25-37

Felt the hamstring tendon in the two arm front rack, but felt ok on all others. Not sure if I was trying to get bigger strides on that set, or if just the loading position effected it.

The 2 arm overhead, only had to step together twice, and it was towards the end so was pretty pleased with that.

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EMOM 12

Min 1 – 30 seconds speed steps

Min 2 – 30 seconds 1-1-2 drill

https://youtu.be/mvbK2d3wB-Q

Min 3 – 30 seconds single leg single unders (switch feet every 5 reps)

Did you want to make me feel like I wasn’t athletic? Mission accomplished!

If someone walked in and had never seen me train, they would’ve said, oh that big guy must be new. This single leg irritated my right ankle, it just felt like that ankle was going to explode. Speed steps got a few percentage points better each round but not much

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EMOM x 12 

Min 1 – 1 legless + 1 regular rope climb

Min 2 – 30 sec AMRAP BBJO @ 30in

Min 3 – 12 wallballs @ 30lbs

For all the unathleticness I felt in the previous emom, when I tripped and almost ate it on the bbjo warming up, but made an athletic save I felt redeemed and like I didn’t lose all my athleticism. 6’s for the first 3 rounds on bbjo and 7 on the last. I could have maybe only done one more round with sustainability.

EMOM x 8

Odd min – 2-3 ring MU

Even min – 6 thrusters @ 155lbs

I felt a little holiday heavy

3 muscle ups across and felt pretty good though

Metrics I paid attention to from last week with the muscle up was my heart rate was at least 10-15 beat higher than the thruster

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EMOM x 8

Odd min – 4-6 deficit HSPU (kipping, adjust deficit to challenge rep range)

Even min – 6 OHS from floor @ 155lbs

5-5-4-4

Did not expect my heart rate to as big of a factor here. 

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10 rounds for time

1 deadlift @ 355lbs

1 round of Cindy

10:22

About the 5th round my push ups slowed me down, and they were such a grind. I tried pushing and I was comfortable with the heavy breathing but it was push ups for sure that slowed me down. Deadlifts were heavy, but with only 1 I did a pretty good job of not wasting too much time trying to get the “perfect” set up.

Dynamic hip opening warmup (40-50ft/movement x 2x through) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIiWBJh03ow

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Broken 5k

Run 1200m @ 88-90%

rest 4 min

Run 1000m @ 88-90%

rest 3 min

Run 800m @ 88-90%

rest 2 min

Run 1000m @ 88-90%

rest 3 min

Run 1200m @ 88-90%

25:46

So I started pretty good here and felt pretty good. After the 1st 1000m run I started to feel pretty excited because the hamstring tendon was not an issue, but after about 100m into the 800m I felt my left hip get a little hot and then the hamstring tendon flared up. After that point it definitely effected my pace, I considered calling it but I hung in there. The 1000m I chose to run the opposite direction to give some relief to the lift leg, and it helped slightly.

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A1 – Supine leg whips x 6/side (keep a very active hip bridge, no rotation at trunk/pelvis)

done

A2 – Star plank x 30 sec/side, rest 1 min x 4 sets

done

B – Frog pumps 3 sets of 50, rest 90 sec

done

A – Power snatch x 1.1.1.1, rest 10 sec/2 min x 3 sets (perform around 115-135)

125

B – 10 squat snatch singles for time @ 95lbs (drop from top and reset)

54

C – PC/PJ x 1.1.1.1, rest 10 sec/2 min x 3 sets (perform around 135-155)

155

D – 10 squat clean singles for time @ 135lbs (drop from top and reset)

50

E – Mini band hip thrusts 3 sets of 15, rest 60 sec

done

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PM kayak/swim/hike/play with dog

Yes sir

60 min running clock, performed at 65-70% effort

AB 2 miles

50ft reverse bear crawl

2 TGU/arm with empty BB

Row 500m

50ft ostrich walk

5 inverted ring tick tocks

Lateral sled drag 100ft/direction

Star plank 20 sec/side

GHD sorenson hold 30 sec

This is perfect timing for a little bit of a de-load, not because my body really needs it, because my plan this week is to really de-load some caffeine. Except for Wednesday, cut down my intake to 2 servings or around 300-350mg/day. This will also include cutting out caffeine pre-workout stimulants.

A. Split jerk recovery x 1.1.1.1, rest 8 sec/2 min x 3 sets

I could not find the jerk recovery standards so I had to use the yoke….I believe the yoke I used is about 160-170, and did +60 for 2 sets and +100 for the last set

B1. Box jumps; 16 reps AFAP 24in, rest 30 sec

*Note: set 1 lateral, set 2 over, set 3 normal

B2. Box step ups with single DB x 20 alt’ing reps 24in, rest 2 min x 3 sets

After the first set I wanted to measure some things and the first 10 reps of the last two sets took around 29-30sec while the last 10 reps took an additional 33-35 seconds

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6 min amrap

10 DB power snatch alternating 50lbs

50 foot single arm DB OH walking lunges

5+10 snatch + 10 feet lunge

I’m not sure if it was 4 or 5 rounds. One thing I did do in the last round when I saw how much time was left on the clock is something I don’t ever recall doing and that’s pushing the speed of the lunge and I really felt it helped me balance quite a bit better.